Music / rock

The essential Gary Lucas


Reviews (4)


American songwriter

2021

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Lee Zimmerman

2021

"While he's made strides in more aesthetic circles, and his early collaborations with Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley brought him to the attention of diehards and devotees, his work has mostly escaped notice from the masses. It's understandable in a way; his compositions embrace minor motifs, unusual tunings, unique chord structures and a complex array of tones and textures. Yet for those willing to take more than a perfunctory listen, Lucas' work offers a fascinating glimpse into a musical world that allows those imaginative instincts to take spark in ways that simply seem boundless ... Taken in tandem, The Essential Gary Lucas offers a potpourri of adventurous sounds and ambitious intentions. Lucas may forego the mainstream, but he never fails to find open avenues that nurture further exploration".


Jazzwise

2021

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Edwin Pouncey

2021

"As its title insists, this really is an essential overview into the work and diverse musical passions of this remarkable musician".


The quietus

d. 5. Feb. 2021

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Sean Kitching

d. 5. Feb. 2021

"Although he's principally known for his work with Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley, and to a lesser extent for his own psychedelic blues band, Gods And Monsters, the vast range of styles that Gary Lucas is fluent in, and the extent of the list of his hugely talented collaborators, finds full expression on this two-CD, 36-track anthology ... Taken as a whole, The Essential Gary Lucas offers substantial and wildly diverse evidence for the case of Gary Lucas being considerably more than a sideman to the likes of Beefheart and Buckley".


Uncut

2021 March

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Jason Anderson

2021 March

"Lucas inevitably remains best known for his key supporting roles in the final years of Captain Beefheart's career and in the early days of Jeff Buckley's ... This 2CD set aims to cover the breadth of his musical endeavours, which are wide enough to encompass Hungarian folk, Cuban charanga and Taiwanese pop along with many displays of Lucas's fretboard dexterity and steadfast affection for open tunings and fingerpicking. The generous sampling of recordings by his long-running Gods And Monsters project includes several memorable dalliances, with David Johansen on the blustery swamp blues "One Man's Meat", Mary Margaret O'Hara on the spellbinding "Poison Tree", and the Woodentops' Rolo McGinty on "Skin The Rabbit". Nona Hendryx' funky rendition of "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles" and an embryonic version of "Grace" are nods to his Beefheart and Buckley tenures, respectively".